Sichuan province, China (CNN) — It’s after 10 p.m. when we see a light in the distance. We’ve traveled for more than three hours up a windy, icy road in western China.

Our hope is to get to the Tibetan autonomous zone, in the mountainous region of Sichuan province, an area reportedly locked in an ever-growing spiral of violence.

We’re so close, only an hour or so away. And then the light.